The Rise of Skywalker
I really just needed a few things to happen in this movie, and a few things to not happen.
To happen:
1. Let Rey be the hero of her own goddamned story. (check)
2. Force ghosts. (check; all the dead Jedi encouraging her totally count. And that was marvelous!)
3. Leia to not be weird. (check)
4.Finn and Poe to be glorious together. (check check!)
5. Retcon the shit out of that trash fire of the last movie and make it go away. (check, mercifully)
6. Rose to not die, but for her to not be a meaningful part of the story. (check; I don't care about Rose and she shouldn't have been introduced and shoved to the front in the last film. That was a huge mistake. But once they did it, I needed her to not die.)
7. The villain be worthy. (CHECCKKKKK, who doesn't love some cackling Palpatine?)
Not to happen:
1. Rey doesn't turn out to be a blood Skywalker. (check, thank God)
2. Rey and Finn or Rey and Poe DO NOT turn romantic. (check)
3. Nothing happen to disrupt my stormpilot. (check - there is absolutely nothing whatsoever preventing us from slashing them from here to eternity, since Poe could as easily be bi or poly or omni or WHO CARES, WRITE ME SOME STORMPILOT PLEASE)
There was a lot of fan service in ROS and I'm here for all of it. 42 years since the last ancestor celebration? Check. Chewie gets a medal he should have received 42 years ago? Yes! Too bad he got it after everyone he loved had died. Finn and Poe are married? YOU BETCHA. (That happened, it's not my fault you didn't see it; just look how they speak to each other. General? General. Let's bicker! Yes.) Ewoks? SURE WHY NOT. Wedge Antilles? HELL YES. Han Solo appears to Ben, confirming he was Force-adjacent in the same ways Finn is? YEP. (Remember: Finn = Han, Poe = Leia, Rey = Luke; it was clearer than ever in this film.) Lando Calrissian shows up and is awesome and says "I have a bad feeling about this"? OMG, so awesome, I can't even. Shots of our favorite places in the SWverse? Yessss! It was all amazeballs.
I also don't mind the sudden implausible transformation of bad!Ben back to good!Ben, because I have placed TLJ on the permanent trash heap and there were only two sequels, you see. So all his ridiculous power posturing from that movie is irrelevant to me. They let the whole matter transference thing pay off, and they let us see the grandson of Vader and granddaughter of Palpatine wipe the floor with him. And they let us also see a nice mirror of the moment Ben killed Han, in the moment he realized he could use his power and give his life to ensure Rey won. He always intended to; I just don't know that he thought he'd have to do it literally AFTER she died.
That was a great moment, btw. Glad she didn't fade into the Force before he clambered back up there. *g*
Also great: the theme of chosen and found family, rendered beautifully by the sadness of Finn and Poe at the end, juxtaposed with great joy - Poe missing Leia, and Finn missing knowing who his people are. But the hug between all of them at the end was everything, because they have found each other, consistently chosen each other, and wow. That's when I cried.
I have to say it, though. I know probably other people are thinking of it, but I really did not expect the ending to be so derivative of Endgame. I mean:
- Resistance ships arriving as Poe is standing alone = portals opening and Avengers showing up (and Lando is Sam, lol)
- "I am all Sith/And I am...all Jedi" = "I am inevitable/And I am...Iron Man"
It was kind of awful and pulled me straight out of what should have been an amazing moment. SERIOUSLY JJ. YOU COULD NOT RESHOOT THAT AFTER ENDGAME LANDED??? wtf.
I probably have other stuff to say. I did shout out loud when I saw John Williams (!!!!!) in his cameo, and people in the theater laughed at me. Probably because they didn't recognize JOHN WILLIAMS!!! I feel like the stormtroopers with speaking lines were probably all famous people. The internet assures me this is so. I choose to believe.
Overall I didn't have high expectations for this movie, and so it pleased me. I'm going to avoid all the inevitable fandom anger and bitterness about Rose being sidelined, and stormpilot not becoming canon but random ladies kissing in the background (shades of Endgame again, and also Star Trek Reboot), and Poe being a flirt with a woman HOW DARE, and Reylo being a thing that legitimizes abuse against women, etc. I agree with some of that, but I don't care enough about the movie to get worked up about it. End of an era! Stormpilot wasn't destroyed! I'll take what I can get.